The present invention relates to systems for reading acoustic images such as those which are obtained in an elastic medium as a result of focusing or interference of elastic ultrasonic waves and which are converted into an electrical signal.
Known devices for reading any type of two-dimensional image generally proceed by decomposing this image into a predetermined number of constituent parts, termed "points," which are defined in terms of illumination or luminance. For an acoustic image, a group of discrete electro-acoustic transducers quantitatively corresponding to the exact number of image points being analyzed, enables to transduce the acoustic field distribution into electrical signal levels.
The electrical signals produced in this way may then be processed with a view to transmitting them sequentially to some remote point or imaging them on a display device.
The optical analogue of such a system of analysis is termed a mosaic.